ST. PETERSBURG -- Awards were the order of the day Friday as the Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America announced its award winners as did the Rays, who announced their 2018 Minor League Award winners.
First, the BBWAA winners:
Blake Snell won the Don Zimmer MVP Award and Joey Wendle won the Outstanding Rookie Award, both by unanimous votes. Voting results were based on a 5-3-1 tabulation system.
Mallex Smith won the Paul C. Smith Champion Award, given to the player who best exemplifies the spirit of true professionalism on and off the field.
• Rays' Top 30 prospects
The Rays organization named infielder Nathaniel Lowe as its Minor League Player of the Year and left-hander Brock Burke as its Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Lowe, the club's No. 13 prospect, hit 27 homers and batted .330 across three levels. Burke went 9-6 with a 3.08 ERA in 25 games with Class A Advanced Charlotte and Double-A Montgomery.
Outfielder Carl Chester was named the Erik Walker Community Champion.
The Rays also announced MVPs for each affiliate, as well as organization-wide awards.
The MVPs were as follows:
Infielder Kean Wong (Triple-A Durham); infielder Nick Solak (Double-A Montgomery); outfielder Jesus Sanchez (Class A Advanced Charlotte); catcher Ronaldo Hernandez (Class A Bowling Green); catcher Chris Betts (Short Season A Hudson Valley); infielder Wander Franco (Rookie League Princeton); infielder Kaleo Johnson (Gulf Coast Rookie); right-hander Matthew Peguero (Dominican Summer League Rays 1, Rookie); and infielder Abiezel Ramirez (Dominican Summer League Rays 2, Rookie).
Baserunner of the Year honors went to infielder Vidal Brujan, while left-hander Colin Poche was named Reliever of the Year, and infielder Taylor Walls was named Defensive Player of the Year.